Adam Williams presents his prediction for the Welsh Open snooker match.
Mark Selby and Jamie Jones will face off in the third round of the Welsh Open, with the winner set to play either John Higgins or Yuan Sijun in the quarter-finals.
Mark Selby
Mark Selby made a century and six 50+ breaks across eight frames won in the opening rounds. This is a testament to the solid form he has maintained for almost the entire season. While this may not be Selby’s absolute best level, it is still enough to place him 12th in the seasonal rankings. In Llandudno, he defeated Haydon Pinhey (4:2) in the first round and then edged out Elliot Slessor (4:3) in a tense final-frame decider. The match against Slessor was particularly significant, as Slessor had beaten Selby at the German Masters not long ago, but this time Mark got his revenge.
Jamie Jones
Jamie Jones struggled significantly in the first half of the season. He suffered losses to Lei Peifan, Ross Muir, Haris Tahir, and, most notably, to women’s world champion Bai Yulu in the UK Championship qualifier (4:6)—a particularly disappointing defeat. Matches like these can seriously damage a player's confidence. Unsurprisingly, Jamie then lost to Alfie Burden in the German Masters qualifier. At the moment, his season appears to be a failure—he is ranked 80th in the season rankings and would need to win the Welsh Open outright to qualify for the Grand Prix, a highly unlikely scenario.
Mark Selby vs Jamie Jones Prediction
Despite Jones’s struggles, we believe he can still put up a fight against Selby and take a couple of frames. In the opening rounds, Jones beat Si Jiahui (4:2) and Robbie Williams (4:2), making impressive breaks of 110, 108, 87, and 79 in the match against Williams. It is hard to expect Jones to maintain this level consistently, but at the same time, he is unlikely to lose 4:0. Of course, a win over Selby would be a massive confidence boost, but his next opponent would be either John Higgins or Yuan Sijun, making further progress highly improbable. We predict a 4:2 victory for Selby and suggest a bet on over 5.5 total frames in the match.
